How Burberry Saved its Brand by Focusing on Digital

You might recognize a signature Burberry trench coat because of its distinctive check pattern.

When Burberry first came to life in London in 1856, CEO & founder Thomas Burberry was, at the time, only 21 years of age. The brand focused solely on outdoor attire in its early days but quickly established a reputation for quality and longevity.

In 1879, Burberry received a patent for its ‘gabardine’ fabric – a water-resistant, breathable material that it would use for trench coats. The company went from strength to strength, opening a store in the upscale Haymarket area of London in 1891, designing its signature equestrian knight logo in 1901, and supplying outdoor attire to South Pole expeditioners in 1911.

Burberry’s popularity skyrocketed after its trench coats were used by British infantry forces during the First World War. An outpour of patriotism boosted its brand identity with members of the public clamoring to buy the products after the end of the war.

Further validation came in the form of high profile celebrity endorsements by movie stars such as Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Peter Sellers in Pink Panther.

The UK luxury brand is best known for its sharp coats and jackets but has also ventured out in designing shoes, scarves, bags, & other accessories. By the mid-1980s as a result of spreading itself too thin and chasing short-term profitability goals, the brand started to stagnate. What happened?

The makings of a crisis

The 70s and 80s were rewarding for Burberry in terms of its bottom line. It signed licensing agreements with many global manufacturers to design suits, trousers, shirts, and accessories and distributed them via independent retailers as well as its own stores. The effect of this expansion i.e. higher operating profits was felt well into the 1990s.

But the licensing partnerships also had an unintended effect: counterfeit products flooded markets across the world, particularly in Asia, causing price disparities that existed even in original products.

Western countries were subjected to higher rates and items were often rerouted back to markets; for example, cheaper bags in Asia were exported back to Europe resulting in a blow to its image.

Burberry had severely diluted the power of its brand by adopting a mass-market route. Once associated with list-A celebrities and daring thrill seekers, Burberry had rapidly lost its aura of glitz and glam.

Shockingly, the elitist brand was now equated with thuggery, chicanery, and hooliganism; adopted en-masse by ‘Chavs’ – a pejorative British term used to describe degenerates and lowlifes. Bouncers would turn away people wearing Burberry outfits as it was assumed they would cause trouble once inside.

Shudder.

Turnaround

“Burberry was not able to identify its target group of consumers because of its uneven distribution and licensing policies in different countries of operation,” says Arittra Basu, business development manager at Westin Hotels.

The long road to redemption started in the late 1990s after Burberry hired Rosie Marie Bravo to steer the ship. She immediately tried to stem the decline by reducing the company’s footprint in Asia, ending price disparities, and appointing a new creative head to reestablish the brand’s core values.

In 2006, Angela Ahrendts was appointed the new CEO and began a journey leading the company to reemerge as a force to be reckoned with.

Initially, there were subtle design changes. The check pattern was scaled back and started to appear less and less on merchandise. Stringent measures were adopted to crackdown on counterfeit items and the licensing agreements were gradually rescinded to centralize design and operations under one roof.

But the most important decision made by Ahrendts, along with Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey was the declaration of their vision to see Burberry as the world’s first fully digital luxury company.

The brand had, in their opinion, appealed to an older clientele for far too long. It was time to catch the attention of suave and fashionable millennials.

Digital would be central to the brand’s way of thinking and customers would be treated to the same experience whether online or in-store.

One of the most popular campaigns Burberry launched was the ‘Art of the Trench’, a unique play on user-generated content to bring consumers at the forefront.

This was a standalone website where customers were encouraged to upload photos of themselves wearing their trench coats. They were featured on the main page for 15 minutes and customers could share these photos on social media feeds. There was also an option to click on a product and be redirected to Burberry’s main site to purchase it.

The campaign was a resounding success. In 2015, it was reported to have gained almost 25 million pageviews since launch.

Another hugely popular campaign was initiated to promote Burberry Kisses, a lipstick brand launched by the company. For this, it partnered with Google to enable users to send personal messages, sealed with a virtual kiss.

Users from 13,000 cities sent these virtual kisses within the first 10 days of launch.

In 2012, Burberry tried to bridge the gap between the online and offline shopping experience via its Regent Street London store. The store featured huge screens where catwalk shows around the world could be viewed live and the individual products were available for instant purchase.

“Burberry Regent Street brings our digital world to life in a physical space for the first time, where customers can experience every facet of the brand through immersive multimedia content exactly as they do online,” said Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts. “Walking through the doors is just like walking into our website.”

Not only can shoppers buy online from Burberry’s digital properties, they can also choose to pick up in-store or have a sales associate order from the website for them while visiting an outlet. Burberry’s also experimented with flash commerce features via Twitter as well as allowing users in China to order via WeChat.

In China Burberry took the unusual route of opening a store on Tmall; a strategy consistently avoided by upscale brands. The move was meant to counter the growing grey market for its goods as well as embrace the Chinese penchant for online shopping.

Its savvy use of social media has also engendered the growth of a loyal community. The brand has embraced Snapchat to provide peeks into upcoming lines and fashion shows. Burberry’s YouTube channel has over 300,000 subscribers and hundreds of videos that not only showcase trench coats, but also includes makeup tutorials, music jams, and other engaging content.

And the result of all of this? In 2011 Business Insider placed Burberry in the top 10 brands of the world with a growth percentage of 86% as judged by an estimate of its brand value. That far outstripped any other company on the list.

Burberry shares, which languished in the $200 range in 2002 now trade at $1,539.

Of course, challenges persist. Weakening demand for luxury brands hurt Burberry’s profitability last year with the CEO saying that the product range “needs to be refreshed”.

But if it continues with its sharp focus on digital and out-of-the-box thinking, it should be able to weather the relative storm.

“Burberry’s digital strategy […] has so far not only put it at the top of the fashion luxury category but among top players across industries,” wrote Digiday.